Stranded
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Shepard is stranded in a  Jumper when he meets a race of evolved Ancients. A re-write of the Larrin character. Pls. R&R WARNING! EROTICA!
1. Chapter 1

** This is my first attempt at SG:A fanfic. Most of my previous work has been for Inception.**

** I felt that there was a great opportunity for John Shepard and Larrin. I feel like Shepard needed a woman who would be his equal. **

** I made some major changes in the character of Larrin. The only thing I kept in fact, was her name. LOL. **

** I've also brought back Dr. Becket because it was a HUGE mistake killing him off. HUGE! The only worse mistake was killing off Weir. So I brought her back as well. **

** I also Brought Bates back. I think he got a bum rap and he will casue some groovy friction. LOL.**

** So this story is going to happen without Weir's stupid replicators, and poor Becket dieing. Oh and I also don't like the replicators cuz I think it's a cheap plot device. So they are gone to. **

** Maybe it was all a dream. **

** I've re-cast Milla Jovovich or Resident Evil fame as Larrin.**

** I enjoy writing Erotica and I intend to have Erotica in this story. **

** I don't own SG:A but if I did, that would be awesome. **

Stranded

It was a pleasant visit for Col. Shepard to M-505. The locals were friendly and... uninhibited. It had been his day off and (like always) he had volunteered his free time to help Dr. Becket deliver medical supplies to the people there.

Normally Shepard kept busy on his days off. There was little personal available who had the Ancient gene that let them pilot a Jumper. It had meant a grueling day of flying all over the planet and he was anxious to get back to Atlantis and have a hot meal and a long sleep.

It would be at least two hours before he reached the Star Gate and he was feeling his eyes start to twitch with tiredness.

'Why do I always have to play hero?' he mused sourly at the thought of wasting his entire day off on a humanitarian mission.

He let his thoughts roam back to the local women of M-505.

They had been particularly beautiful. Well toned and athletic. He smiled to himself. He had been more lonely then normal the past few weeks. Tayla had been spending more time with her people, Dr. Weir had been busy with all the various duties of Atlantis. He always had Rodney and Ronan were always ready for guy talk but he was missing the fairer sex.

He always enjoyed being around women. Had no problem serving with them professionally. Even liked serving with them. Tayla and Weir had been particularly pleasant to work with. But they had always been off limits in a way. He was sure he could have perused something with Tayla once upon a time. But things were different now. Same thing could be said of Dr. Weir.

It was in thinking how lonely he was on the long flight back to the Star Gate, that the Jumper gave off a violent shutter and went dark.

~ Larrin was flying her own Gate Ship to check reports of unusual activity on a non- gate world.

"What kind of unusual activity?" She asked Eva over the com link.

"Well, our sensors have detected Gate Ship activity but not the kind that comes from our ships." Eva said from the home base of Efrafa*.

"Wraith?" Larrin asked.

"Negative." Eva answered. "Their nothing like Wraith ships. Their like ours, but the signals are very out of sync."

"What do you mean out of sync?" Larrin laughed. She enjoyed these solo missions Eva sent her on. Always enjoyed getting away from Efrafa. She heard Eva sigh.

"To be honest Larrin, I don't know. I don't want to say it but..."

"Say it." Larrin said.

Her friend was a genius at most everything and if she believe something was correct, Larrin was willing to believe her. Still, it was not wise to express opinions. Not in Efrafa.

"It's an A_ncient_ signal, Larrin." Eva whispered. Larrin sat in silence for a moment.

"How is that possible?" She asked. Half afraid.

"I don't know. I may be wrong. It may be debris form an Ancient battle with the Wraith." Eva ventured.

"We both know it's not." Larrin said soberly.

"I know." Eva said sadly. "Listen, observe and report back what you find. Do not engage. Let operations handle this okay?" Eva said in a low frightened tone.

"I will. Watch your back." Larrin said silencing the com.

She worried more for Eva then herself at this moment. It was dangerous to go around asking the wrong questions. Or to mention anything about the Ancients to the Efrafa council. Whatever she did find on this normally silent world, she hoped it would not be Ancient.

~Real fear was invading Shepard at the moment. Everything was dead. Controls, communications. He was a long way from the Star Gate and a rescue would be hours away. Always assuming they waited till the last second to launch a search party. He would run out of air by then.

A heavy duty flashlight fended off the darkness as he tried to get the old gal going again.

Nothing. It was like a dead battery.

'Why did everything just stop working?' He wondered. It was like that planet with all the kids. Some kind of dampening field. Yet, they had detected no such problems on the many trips before.

'Probably some kind of ion storm.' he figured.

The Jumper almost felt haunted. Like it's sudden plunge into darkness had brought back it's ancient ghost. Shepard shook those thoughts away. He tried to focus on getting power back as he could feel the air start to turn bad.

~ It was an Ancient Gate Ship. No doubt about it. Larrin had the cloaking device up on her own vessel as she maneuvered around it. It was out of power, and there was a life sign in it.

"How?" she asked. Wondering aloud to no one. She had a million questions but knew if she made contact with whoever it was, there would be very serious repercussions once she brought that person and his ship back to Efrafa.

She should take Eva's advice. Observe and not engage. Her sensors showed the Ancient Gate Ship was completely drained of power and it's single passenger was running out of air.

She could help him. He was alone, helpless. He would die out here in a few minuets if she didn't do something.

Larrin acted.

It was a simple matter to link her ship to his. End hatch to end hatch. Her own ship was at least twice as large as his and far more impressive. It still held the same design as the ancient ship but was too wide to go through the traditional Star Gate.

The Efrafans didn't use _traditional _Star Gates.

She hooked up emergency power to the smaller, older vessel and flooded it with breathable air till her sensors were all reading green.

Larrin armed herself before entering the ancient ship.

~ John was barely conscious as he felt the air come back on. He thought he saw lights flicker on as well. It almost felt like the rear hatch had opened and someone had come onto the Jumper. But that was impossible. He was in space. No one could save him like that.

~ It was a solitary man on the ancient ship. The air was bad but becoming breathable. It was incredible. If this _was_ an Ancient ship, then this could be invaluable to Efrafa.

The genesis from where her people had come from. They had come from the Ancients, but ten thousand years had progressed from the fabled city and it's people. The latest evolution who now called themselves Efrafans.

The man gave a grown that pulled her attention away from the sights of Ancient technology. The humanity in her made her examine the man who might be Ancient.

He certainly didn't look it. His clothing and hair were unkempt and he needed to shave. Most Ancients were impeccably clean, in neutral colors. Larrin's only reference were holograms she had seen when she was younger.

"Hello?" She asked tentatively leaning over him as his eyes opened. He was not armed and posed little threat considering he was on deaths door a moment ago.

The man looked at her and sighed.

"Well, dieing isn't a bad I thought." He said breathlessly.

"Your not dead." She told him smartly. Not getting Shepard's humor. "What's your name?"  
>"Lt. Col. John Shepard." He informed her automatically. "And you are?"<p>

"Wondering what your doing in this ship." She said curtly. "Did you find it? How did you get it into space?" She asked. He was sitting up now and her training told her to back away toward the open rear hatch. Her escape route.

Shepard's head hurt but that was soon forgotten when he saw the rear hatch was open. But instead of open space, he saw the bright comforting lights of technology. It was as if the Jumper had landed inside another ship.

"Where am I?" He asked her forcing himself to stand. That was when he noticed the strange woman was holding a formidable weapon. Shepard raised his hands up.

"Look, I just want to know what happened to me." He said giving her his most charming smile. She didn't fall for it. She had a very pleasing face except that it was very serious.

"Your ship encountered difficulties, you lost power. You were almost out of air when I found you." She informed him.

"Where am I?" He asked keeping his hands up. Something about her told him she was the type of woman who _would_ shoot him if provoked.

"Your in space." She told him waving her weapon at the front window of the Jumper. Shepard turned to see the view of space. It made no sense.

"How-" He started to ask.

"Now it's your turn." She interrupted him leveling her weapon at him. "How did you find this ship and how did you get it into space?" She asked.

"Well, I _flew_ it into space, Miss...?" Shepard told her, allowing a pause for her to give him her name. She didn't offer it.

"You _flew_ it into space?" She repeated. "Your _not_ Ancient."

"Never said I was." Shepard retorted.  
>"Then what are you doing with this ship?" She asked.<p>

"Look, can you just lower your weapon? I can tell you everything you want to know if you just lower your weapon."

Larrin found herself listening to the man. This John Shepard. She lowered her weapon slightly.

"Tell me how you came to this ship." She asked again.

Shepard never got the chance to answer her as the lights started to flicker on the Jumper as well as her more modern Gate Ship.

It wasn't long before both vessels were in total darkness.

*** Efrafa. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. A particularly militant warren of rabbits. Much of this story will be influenced by this book. **

**Pls. R&R**


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ "Don't move!" Larrin shouted as Shepard reached for the flash light he left on the deck.

He slowly straitened himself back up to standing. Even if the total darkness prevented either of them form seeing one another, he knew she would shoot him if she suspected he was reaching for a weapon.

"I was _just_ reaching for the flash light." He said calmly. "What happened?" He asked.

"I think your ship may have drained all the power from mine." Larrin said fearfully as she fumbled for her own portable light.

A bright beam cut into the blackness as she re-trained her weapon on him.

Shepard squinted at the strong light that shown over his face.

"Can you _not_ shine that in my eyes, please?" He asked.

Larrin, satisfied he was still unarmed, lowered the light slightly.

"Where are your weapons?" She asked.

Shepard smiled and shook his head.

"Sorry." He said smiling, still keeping his hands in the air.

He could not tell her where he kept any weapons. Could tell her nothing of Atlantis or Earth. Standard protocol for all off world activity. Plus it was innate, common sense.

She stepped aside and raised her own menacing firearm to his head.

"Over there." She ordered nodding to the entrance of her ship.

"You want me to come aboard your ship?" He questioned.

"Exactly." She told him never taking her eyes off him.

"What for?" He questioned as he stepped over the threshold and on to the alien vessel.

"For this." She said.

A flash of white light engulfed his body. His muscles seized up and his head began to swim. Long experience had taught him that she had just stunned him.

~ 'What a mess.' Larrin mused as she examined the power exchange. She had been right. The power transfer to his _archaic_ vessel from hers had been too great a strain. They were in serious trouble. She would have to sever his ship and re-power her own. An operation that would take hours. Larrin had at least achieved basic power.

She had lights and air, but the re-boot was a difficult processes and one she wasn't sure could be done alone in space. It was already starting to get cold. She heard a groaning as looked over to see this Lt. Col. John Shepard had started waking up.

She was thankful she had secured the stranger before she went to work on repairing her ship. Thankful a search of his ship reveled no weapons except primitive projectile firearms. All of which she left on the Ancient vessel before cutting it adrift.

"You stunned me." He said crankily. "You tied me up." He added looking at his hands lashed together in front of him. Shepard's body felt achy and he remained sitting on the deck of her ship.

"I did." She agreed. "I had to find out what you did to my ship and I didn't have time to babysit you."

"What _I_ did to _your_ ship?" Shepard repeated. "Listen, who are you?"

"My name is Larrin." She said briskly. "Something very serious had happened."

"You got power back up." Shepard said looking around the impressive Jumper. It was very much like the Jumpers from Atlantis only much larger. Much more complex.

"Emergency systems." Larrin explained to him. "I've had to cut lose your own ship." She said pointing to the front bay window.

Shepard looked out to view, in fascinating horror, his own Jumper. Now set adrift in space.

"Oh, Well." He stared to say sourly. "That's just great."

Larrin gave him an exasperated look.  
>"Shepard is it? We have a serious situation." She started to say<p>

"Why is it so cold in here?" He interrupted. She sighed.

"Because when the power transfer failed, it drained my ship. I've managed to reactive the emergency power, but it will take hours. In the mean time, all non-essentials are offline. That means everything except air, basic lights, cloak and artificial gravity."

"Well, I'd rather have heat then gravity wouldn't you?" he turned to her.

"I didn't design the program." She retorted angrily. "It's not for me to question what the Efrafans think is more important."

"Who?" Shepard questioned.

"Nothing. Listen, we have hours before this ship can produce heat and be fit for travel." Larrin went on. "Until then, we are helpless here. Your recent Gate activity, the ship's signature... if the Wraith come-"

"Do we have weapons?" Shepard interrupted still looking out at his Jumper listing helplessly in space.

"No." Larrin said feeling irritated. "We have the cloaking device."

"I'd rather have drones ready then a cloak if the Wraith do come." Shepard said defensively.

"It's better to _evade_ an enemy then engage. As long as no one knows were here, were safe." Larrin assured him.

She wasn't liking the man. He was arrogant and his constant questioning before he knew the facts was annoying.

"My people will be looking for me." Shepard told her. "In a few hours, they will send a rescue."

"You want to go back to your ship?" She asked angrily. "Last I saw, it had no gravity, no weapons, no cloak, no heat and no air. But if you really want to go back to that old piece of junk, be my guest."

"Piece of junk?" Shepard repeated. Looking really hurt. Larrin sighed.

"Tell me something, how did you come across Ancient technology? How did you make it work?" She asked. Shepard didn't answer.

Yet another rule about off world activity. Never tell anyone about the technology or Shepard's ability to use it. One question would lead to another and then everyone would want Atlantis and it's wealth of Ancient secrets. Larrin shrugged.

"I've only ever seen Gate Ships like yours in history class. In museums. Never seen one actually applied." She told him lazily as she re-arranged power crystals.

Shepard watched her work. The "brain" of her Jumper was far more intricate then his.

"This is a big Jumper." He mused aloud. "How do you get it to go through the Star Gate?" He asked

"Jumper? We don't need to use the Star Gate." She answered casting him a quick glance before returning to her work.

"What? You open a hyperspace window?" He asked. She sighed.

"Tell you what Shepard, I'll answer your questions if you answer mine." She offered. "How did you come across that piece of junk?"

"My people found it. Few years ago." Shepard answered. "How do you get around without the Star Gate?"

"We can create an_ artificial _Star Gate from our ships." Larrin answered.

"How is that possible?" He asked not able to fully wrap his head around the concept. She gave him a smile. Gently reprimanding him for breaking the rules of the game. Shepard leaned back against the wall. Remaining silent.

"_Where_ did you find the Ancient Gate Ship?" She asked.

He didn't answer.

"From Atlantis?" She asked almost fearfully, searching his face for the truth.

Shepard didn't meet her gaze.

"Do you and your people, do you come from Atlantis?" She asked.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

~ "I don't know what your talking about." Shepard told her. Larrin returned her focus back to the controls.

"I'm sure you've been trained to say just that. I know I've been trained to evade questioning that could leave my own people compromised." She said casually.

"I don't have any _people_." Shepard said pretending to have a great interest in the view out the front window. He could still see his Jumper, turning lazily in slow circles as it drifted.  
>"Is there any chance my Jumper will ever work again?" He asked. "Even if it is a piece of junk, I'm kinda sentimental about it.<p>

"I'll bet." Larrin laughed. "They stopped making those _Jumpers,_ as you call them, about the time your people's city vanished into the sea after a Wraith attack."

"What do you know about it?" John asked, curious.

"Just that the Ancient Atlantians left this galaxy. Abandoned the people who depended on them. Left them as food for the Wraith." Larrin felt her voice fad away a little at that last point.

"This is an impressive ship." Shepard said, trying to change the subject to one less grim.

"Rest assured. I didn't _find_ this one, Shepard." Larrin scoffed.

"Looks Lantian." Shepard accused.

"In a way it is." Larrin agreed.

She sighed as a relay broke before her eyes. A puff of cold air was visible from the cold.

"It's getting colder." Shepard said as if reading her mind. "I think it might be colder on this floor. If you could untie me so I could move around a bit... get the blood pumping." He looked at her imploringly. Larrin tuned to him and gave him a doubtful look.

Shepard gave her his most innocent school boy smile.

"Come on, Larrin. I don't have a weapon. If I try anything, I know you'll shoot me. You can't let me freeze to death down here." He told her.

"No, I guess I can't." She told him extracting a frightening hunting knife that had been hiding in her belt. Instinct told Shepard to move away as she advanced on him. She had done too good a job of securing his bindings, he barely was able to move. She quickly used the blade to free him. Her cuts on the ropes strong and sure.

Despite all his training he made no move to take her weapons. No move to over power her. She had bested him several times already and with his Jumper still adrift, he had no exit strategy. Beside, he knew she would not hesitate to use the stunner on him again, or that evil looking knife. Larrin possessed the same assurances he normally saw in Tayla when they were in a vicarious situation. He knew Larrin had it in her to hurt him.

But she hadn't yet. She had stunned him, sure. But she had saved his life first. She had not made any attempts to seize his jumper or it's technology. She had not hurt him in anyway.

He stood up slowly. Not wanting her to think he was a threat.

"Thank you." He said.

"Your welcome." came a indifferent reply. Her breath puffing out from the cold. She turned her back to him and resumed her work.

Shepard breathed hot hair into his hands.

"Thank you for saving me... to." He added. She looked back at him slowly.

"Don't even think about taking control of this ship. Alright?" She warned him retuning to her work. "It's _encoded_. It will only work for _my_ DNA. My _touch_. It will also sense if I'm under duress or unconscious. So if you were thinking of taking me hostage and flying out of here or something like that, it's won't work."

"I wasn't thinking that." Shepard lied. "I wouldn't know how to fly this bird anyway." He admitted.

Larrin caught herself smiling.

"When will your people be here to rescue you?" She asked.

"About 13 hours." He told her. She sighed.

"Long time." She admitted. "Always assuming they can find a ship that is totally powered down." She added.

"Do you think you can fix it?" He asked. Watching her impressive skills on her repairing her own ship made him feel the Jumper could be saved.

"Maybe." She admitted. Her voice softer suddenly. More feminine. John noticed for the first time how large and blue her eyes were. How they sought and locked contact with his own. He gave her a smile as he wrapped his arms around himself to keep out the cold. She didn't look at all bothered by the intense chill. Creeping into the ship. Going to his bones.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked. She looked surprised.

"Not really." She told him.

To his total shock, she reached out her hand to him. He readily took it. Her hand, her fingers, were all warm.

"It's freezing in here. How are you still so warm?" He asked.

"How are you so cold?" She asked him as an answer. John was worried. But only because she looked so worried.

~ "We have to bring your body heat up." Larrin was saying as she opened large containers. John was shaking now from the ever plummeting temperature. He could see his breath coming out in puffs of white ice. Pacing around the ship was doing little to warm his body. Larrin finally found what she was searching for. A heavy black blanket. Thick and comfortable looking.

"It will absorb and reflect back your body heat." She told him. With the flick of a button, too fast for Shepard to see, a bunk appeared from the side of the wall. Before he could ask how she had done that, Larrin had pushed him to sitting on the improved bed and was wrapping the heavy blanket around him.

"Larrin... can't... we just turn... on the...heat?" His teeth were chattering as he spoke. She shook her head.  
>"I'm sorry, Shepard." She told him in that nice feminine voice again. "I can't override the system. But I wont let you freeze to death."<p>

"Please..." He stared to say. "call me John." He told her trying to smile.

Larrin nodded and with a quick movement and surprising strength, she had rolled him over onto the bed, wrapping him more securely in the blanket.

"This will keep you warm." She told him. "I'll work fast but it will take hours still." Just stay here and keep the blanket around your body. Understand?" She told him gently.

Shepard nodded.

"Thanks... _again_." He chattered. "Can't we call your people?" He asked hopefully. "Is communications still working?"

Larrin felt her body tense at the mention of her people. If they captured this man, John, he would be a prisoner. Forever. He would be tortured until he gave up all information about how he had obtained the Ancient ship. Once he had no more information to give, he would not be returned to his people. He would be killed. Or brain washed into helping the Efrafans eliminate his kind.

"No." She found herself lying. "No, I'm sorry John. Communications are down."

"I guess your people don't think communications are _essential_." He laughed.

"Were going to be fine." She told him.

Shepard nodded.

"I know we are." He pretended to agree as he fought off another fit of shivering.

~ She was working fast. Most of the systems was automated, it's only required her touch to be entered in dozens of times before it could start the re-powering posses. She made John talk to her to keep him awake.

"John?" She called out when he had been to quite. "Stay awake." She ordered.

"I'm awake." He said gruffly. As if her voice had pulled him from a pleasant sleep.

"Talk to me. You were telling me about your friend, Rodney. He was complaining of getting sunburned?" She reminded him.  
>"Oh yeah." Shepard recalled. He had been telling her about the time they had first met Ronan. That awful planet where the sun could make you sick if left out in it for to long.<p>

"We were looking for our friend... Ford. McKay had dressed up, head to toe, in a radiation suit." John was laughing despite feeling his nose had turned to ice.

"Must have made it easy to trek through the forest in _that_." Larrin said leading him on. Her hands were working quickly over the relays, patching and forwarding power.

"It wasn't." John laughed.

He let out a sigh. The cold turning his breath to ice.  
>"I wonder why I got so cold and you didn't." he mused. More to himself.<p>

"We've noticed that with others." Larrin told him. "When ever we meet up with people on other planets. We were... different then them. We noticed it a long time ago."

"How? " John asked. "How are your different?"

Larrin sighed.

"We don't get cold as easy, or hot for that matter. Were stronger then most. We seem to heal faster. Live longer and are _much_ healthier." She gave out a sour laugh. "I guess the selection really _is _working." She told him before biting her lip.

"The _selection_?" John repeated. "What's that?"

"It's nothing." She told him sadly. Reprimanding herself for mentioning it.

It was with delight that the lights flickered and turned down to an orange hue.

"What's happening?" John asked not moving from his bunk.

"It's alright." Larrin assured him. "The re-power is starting."

"Will the heat be on soon?" He asked trying to sound brave but the bone cold of space was taking over him.

"Hours yet." She told him. "But I don't need to do any more."

Her survival skills, her training was kicking in. As it always did.

Shepard would die soon form the sever cold. The blanket was working, but it would not be enough to keep his body warm. With nothing to do but wait now, she kicked off her boots and curled into the bunk beside the stranger. Pulling the thick blanket over the both of them.

He looked at her in surprise as she freed his ice like fingers from under his arms. Applying her own hot breath to them. Using her body heat to keep him warm. Alive.

"Don't get excited Shepard." She warned him as he looked a little _too_ happy to have her there. "This is just keeping you from getting frost bite or dieing on me."

"No offense Larrin, but in this cold, I couldn't get _excited_ for all the world." He joked.

She found herself laughing as her warm hands gave his almost frozen fingers it's heat. Releasing them from the painful grip of the cold.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

Shepard was so cold, he almost didn't feel Larrin's warm body next to his.

"Your hands are like _ice_." She told him wrapping her own hands around his. Shepard couldn't control the shaking as his body started to warm up next to hers.

"I can't feel anything." He confided. The sharp cold had stilled the blood flow so much he couldn't even command his hands to clench a fist.

Larrin pulled her body in closer to his. His arms wrapping around her,. Those ice like hands reaching, searching for warmth. Finding it finally in contacting her skin.

Larrin took a sharp intake of breath as she felt his cold fingers graze over her back. Reaching underneath her shirt to her hot skin beneath it. She said nothing as Shepard, seemingly unaware of his actions, nuzzled his face deep into her neck.

"Your nose is cold to." She said with a laugh.

"Sorry about that." He said softly. "Tell me about what you were saying before. About the Selection."

For a log time, Larrin didn't respond. It had been drilled into her mind to never reveal any information to anyone about Efrafans. They were a secretive people. Xenophobic. Isolated. Militant. Protecting their way of life and its secrets at all costs. For all Larrin knew, this man could be a trap or test. She wouldn't put it past Efrafa. A handsome helpless stranger, sent to test her. Sent to see if she would betray her own kind.

"That's boring." She told him. "Tell me about your people. Tell me about Atlantis."

"I never told you I came from Atlantis." Shepard said pulling her into his embrace tighter. Like a lover would. His breath reaching her breasts.

"Where else could you be from? Is the city still there?" She asked.

It was a primary directive to never reveal to any outsider anything about Atlantis. To many innocent lives were at stake.

"I can't tell you anything about my people, Larrin. Not because I don't want to. Not that I'm not grateful to you for saving my life. Its too dangerous for others to know about us. It would be too dangerous for you to have that kind of information." He admitted.

"Well, it's the same with the selection." She told him sadly.

She sighed heavily.

"Lets talk about something else. What do you do for your people?" She asked. She felt a grin come across his face as he finally looked up at her. His face so close to hers, she could pick of the smell of his toothpaste.  
>"I do a little of everything I guess." He told her. "Mainly, no matter what fancy title they give me, I'm just a taxi driver. I pilot the Jumpers wherever people need to go."<p>

Larrin laughed.

"Glorified transporter?" She teased. "I've been there."  
>"Ah, I love it though. I wouldn't want to do anything else." He admitted. "The minuet I stepped through that Star Gate, I felt my whole life change. It got so much better."<p>

"What was your life like before?" She asked. She could feel his body start to warm next to hers. His hands, no longer ice.

"Sometimes... no matter what I did, even if was the right thing, it always went wrong. It was just so..." Shepard started to explain but found himself searching for the right words.

"Bleak?" Larrin finished.  
>"Yes." he conceded. "What about you? What do you do for your people?" He felt her body relax more into his.<p>

"Whatever I'm told I guess. I'm a pilot mainly. I normally go on long range scouting missions." She reveled. "My sensors detected strange activity from a planet that has no Star Gate in orbit. Nothing like a Wraith attack. I was sent to check it out."

"Lucky for me you did." Shepard said casually. "How do your people avoid the Wraith?" He asked

"Was never a problem until recently. There was always easier pray out there. Lately, they've come back in a stronger force. We don't know why yet."

Shepard remained silent.

"We have our ways of avoiding them. We've had to adapt." Larrin finished. "What about you? Do the Wraith give you a lot of trouble?"

"More then we'd like." Shepard admitted.

"How?" Larrin asked.

"We don't mean to, but we always seem to find ourselves _looking_ for trouble." Shepard said with a smile.

"Ah." Larrin grinned.

John found himself smiling back.

"Your skin is really warm." He commented moving his hands up her back till he felt the lacy clasp of her bra.

Without warning, she kissed him. A simple matter, being as how both of them were already so physically close. John returned her affections. His hands leaving her back and running up her hair, Her face.

For Larrin's part, she was unsure why she was doing this. Perhaps the thrill of meeting a stranger. The knowledge that once she put him back on his ship, she would never see him again. That no one from Efrafa would ever know. Efrafa, a place where they knew everything you did.

A exaltation of freedom had seized her. Took control and left her wanting more.

When she broke free of their kiss John was roaming her face and body with his eyes.

"Well... that was unexpected." He breathed. Not hiding a smile.

"Shut up John." She scolded him as she rolled on top of him, deftly removing her top.

"You do this will all the men you rescue?" He teased as his hands went to her breasts.

The barrier of her bra preventing his skin making contact with his. Her lips were on his again. Her hot skin and breath keeping away the frighting cold outside their privet world.

Her hands, her long warm fingers were slipping into the folds of his shirt. Undoing the buttons, exposing his chest to her touch.

Larrin could vaguely recall John whispering that she was beautiful before she lost control.


End file.
